Friday, October 26, 2012

Voodoo with Janice Horton

RNA member Janice Horton lives in Scotland and writes contemporary romance with humour. Her novels ‘Bagpipes & Bullshot’ and ‘Reaching for the Stars’ are both Amazon Kindle bestsellers. Her latest title ‘How Do You Voodoo?’ is a novella and launches today - 26th October!

So, for a bit of spellbinding fun, do pop over to Janice’s blog today or follow the party on Twitter using the hashtag #voodoo.

Tell us more about How Do You Voodoo?

The idea for this story was sparked by a real life event. On a flight back from the Caribbean, I witnessed a nasty spat between two female passengers. My imagination soon took over and I thought - ‘what if one had put a voodoo curse on the other?’ - and it had me scribbling in my notebook for the rest of the flight.

This is the story I came up with:

Loveless fashion model Nola Nichols thinks being beautiful is a curse; that is until she is cursed and her looks begin to fade just a week before the most important photo shoot of her career. Nola rejects all rational explanation on what might be causing her lost looks and decides she has to find a way to get uncursed. This imaginative quest takes her from the Caribbean to Glasgow’s own City of the Dead. Along the way, she finds herself taking part in a rather unconventional funeral, involved in a voodoo ritual, reveals one or two unrests in her own past and falls madly in love with a doctor. Erm, that would be a witch doctor, right…?

Janice, tell us why you decided to write a novella?

It occurred to me that there are certain times of the year like Valentine’s Day, Christmas or Halloween, when an opportunity exists for an author to offer readers a seasonal short fun read between full length novels. I’m currently working on another full length novel but I’m mindful that it will have taken me a full year to write it. I like to think that by offering novellas in between novels, I can retain the interest of my readers and also have some extra writing fun myself. It’s also a good way to introduce new readers to your writing as they may then go on to read your other work.

Tell us how you set about the research.

I find the research I do for my stories just as much fun as writing them! On this occasion, a central scene in ‘How Do You Voodoo?’ takes place in a huge spooky Victorian cemetery in Glasgow known as ‘The City of the Dead’. You do know that all my books include a Scottish setting, don’t you? You didn’t? Well, I suggest you pop over to my tartantastic blog and check them all out!
Photos – Janice exploring Glasgow’s spooky ‘City of the Dead’.

4 comments:

Thanks Rosemary! It was great fun to research How Do You Voodoo? and today it's great fun launching it. I loved your birthday spell by the way!

Like all the party peeps over at my blog today, I have cast a spell but really should have given it more thought - as what I really need today is a 'Be Everywhere At Once Spell' as I dash between blogland, Facebook and Twitter - it's all amazing!

Also amazing is how clever and inventive people are being in casting their spells - and I can't wait to hear if any of them actually work - lol!

It's great to be here on the RNA Blog - thanks so much for having me!

All day today only my romantic Halloween novella 'How Do You Voodoo?' is FREE to download. It's my party gift - so please get your copy now.

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Romantic Novelists' Association

We work to enhance and promote the various types of romantic and historical fiction, to encourage good writing in all its many varieties, to learn more about our craft and help readers enjoy it.

Romantic Fiction covers an enormous range, from short stories through category romance and much of women's fiction, to the classics. The nature of romantic fiction means that most of these novels are written and read by women. The RNA, however, boasts a number of very successful male authors amongst their membership.